Coronation Street, Weatherfield

Rovers Return Inn Coronation Street (postcode M10 9KC) is a residential/business street in Weatherfield, connecting with Rosamund Street on the west side and Viaduct Street on the east.

Built in 1902, it originally comprised a row of seven terraced houses, with the Rovers Return Inn and Corner Shop at the end points. The Street, with its vintage cobbled road separating the north and south sides, was situated behind Hardcastle's Mill in Victoria Street. The south side of the street has been subject to extensive re-development, the largest and most recent of which took place in 1989 which involved the building of three new houses and several retail and industrial units.

Businesses currently operating in Coronation Street are the Rovers pub, D&amp;S Alahan Corner Shop, newsagent The Kabin, textile factory Underworld, Websters' Auto Centre garage and Audrey's Hair and Beauty Salon

Construction
By the turn of the century, Sir Humphrey Swinton's vision of new Weatherfield was taking shape. Tenements were being cleared and demolished, and replaced by modern working class housing. Two of the last streets to be constructed were Mawdsley Street and Albert Street, two rows of terraced houses built in the shadow of Hardcastle's Mill, a major centre of employment since 1882. The new houses were partially intended as accommodation for the mill's workers, and Charles Hardcastle was involved in their planning. Upon Swinton's death in 1900, his mistress Mabel Grimshaw saw his plans to completion.

In keeping with most local streets, the houses in Swinton's streets were typical two-up-two-down terraces. Each of the seven houses in Albert Street consisted of a front room, a living/dining room with a coal fire for heating and an adjoining scullery on the ground floors and three bedrooms on the upper floors. They contained no indoor lavatories, with outdoor toilets installed in the backyards. The Street also included a Corner Shop at the Viaduct Street end, and the Rovers Return Inn at the opposite end. The shop contained its own accommodation and flat, while the Rovers (initially named "The Rover's Return"), owned by brewery Newton, Ridley &amp; Oakes, was built with living space for its tenants. Although technically part of Victoria Street, the Glad Tidings Mission Hall was built at the same time as Albert Street, servicing the residents' religious needs. The Mission's vestry had an entrance on Coronation Street, used by the resident caretaker.

Construction of the terraces was completed on 8th August 1902, one day before the coronation of King Edward VII. In honour of his succession, the Street's name was changed to Coronation Street, and the first families started moving into their new houses on the day of the coronation.

Development
After World War II, areas of Weatherfield started being re-developed, with demands for more housing resulting in Victorian terraces being emptied and demolished and replaced with tower blocks or other modern structures. In 1961, a rumour spread among the residents that Coronation Street was to be among those to be pulled down, although it was safe on this occasion as Ena Sharples had actually misread a notice about Coronation Terrace.

Nevertheless, the Street did face re-development in 1968 when the council bought the Glad Tidings Hall and factory with a compulsory purchase order and demolished them both, to make way for a new block of council-owned maisonettes to be built on the site. The building consisted of three one bedroom, single storey OAP flats and four two-storey maisonettes above them. The maisonettes were not a success - they were cheaply built and were damp, and several lay empty. In 1971, Valerie Barlow, who lived in the maisonettes at No.14, died when she was electrocuted by a faulty plug socket, leading to a fire. Although the flats were saved, the council decided to demolish them after deciding that they were not safe to live in.

Further rebuilding took place on the site following the fire. At the viaduct end of the Street, a Community Centre was built, complete with a small flat for a caretaker. Next to the Centre, a warehouse was erected, despite protests from local residents. The warehouse was bought by Mark Brittain, a mail order catalogue company, which used the premises until the building was gutted by fire in 1975. The following year, Mike Baldwin, a London businessman, bought the building, renovated it and opened a denim factory called Baldwin's Casuals.

In 1989, deciding that the locals no longer needed the Community Centre, the council sold the site to Maurice Jones, a local property developer. Jones also approached Mike Baldwin and made an offer to buy the factory, and Baldwin agreed to sell. The buildings were demolished on 20th September 1989 and in their place came a whole new development of homes and businesses.

The Jones development was comprised of three houses, four shop units and three flats. The new houses were larger than the terraces on the other side of the street, and each had a small back garden. Two shop units were situated at Nos 2 and 10, each with a flat above, numbered 2a and 10a respectively. Since 1992, No.2 has been a hairdressing salon and No.10 has housed newsagent the Kabin, moved from its Rosamund Street premises in 1990. Flat No.12 was adjacent to Flat 10a.

No.16 was a garage unit, bought by Mike Baldwin in 1992, his first business venture in the Street since the sale of the factory, but it wasn't until 1997 that he opened lingerie factory Underworld in No.14, the largest business unit in the Street. Unit 14 was first used by Phil Jennings as the headquarters of PJ Promotions in 1991.

The new south side of the Street also contained some greenery, including a tree and bushes, lending Coronation Street some rare visual splendour, and a public phone box. In 2003, a bench was placed between the salon and bushes, dedicated to the memory of murder victim Maxine Peacock.

Despite the many changes made to the south side of the Street, the north side remains relatively unchanged, although modifications and improvements have been made to individual houses both inside and outside, and the middle house, No.7, was rebuilt in 1982 after collapsing in 1965 as a result of a shift in the mine workings upon which the street was built. he original cobbles on the Street still remain in place. Weatherfield Council intended to dig them up and replace them with tarmac, but a campaign to save the cobbles was set up by the residents in December 2000 which resulted in their preservation owing to the road not being a major thoroughfare.

More recently, Coronation Street was the site of a major disaster when on 6th December 2010, an explosion at the Joinery bar in Viaduct Street caused a tram to de-rail from the viaduct and crash into Coronation Street, causing damage to the Corner Shop, the Kabin and the flats above and injuring many people. The residents pulled together to help each other out in the incident, but the destruction claimed the lives of butcher Ashley Peacock, Corner Shop worker Molly Dobbs and an unfortunate Cab Driver passing by.

North side
The Rovers Return Inn (or simply The Rovers) pub is situated at the corner of Coronation and Rosamund Streets and is the central meeting place of the residents. Originally subdivided into the Public, Snug and Select bars, the Rovers was refurbished in 1986 after a fire gutted the pub. The Snug and Select were removed and Public expanded in a significant modernisation of the pub. The living area of the Rovers comprises a sitting/dining room and kitchen on the ground floor (mainly used as a staff rest room).

Owners Newton & Ridley sold the pub to Jack and Vera Duckworth in 1995 and since then it has been privately owned, although the brewery continues to supply the pub's ale. The current owner and landlord is Johnny Connor, who runs the pub with his wife Jenny. Past tenants and licensees include Annie and Jack Walker, Bet and Alec Gilroy, Fred Elliott, Shelley Unwin, Steve McDonald and Stella and Gloria Price. Once again in 2013, another fire gutted the pub leaving £90,000 worth of damage.

1 Coronation Street is the leftmost terraced house and is adjacent to the Rovers. Albert Tatlock lived there from 1918 until his death in 1984, and the house is currently the home of Ken, Peter, Simon and their dog Eccles. Ken's wife Deirdre died in July 2015 whilst staying with good friend Bev Unwin. In 1981, the front parlour was converted into a bedroom for Albert, later being used by Blanche Hunt.

3 Coronation Street, next door to No.1, is owned by Ed and Aggie Bailey. The Baileys purchased No.3 from previous owner Norris Cole in June 2019. Norris had lived in the house since 2000 as the lodger of Emily Bishop, before purchasing the house himself in the summer of 2013. Emily had lived in the house since her marriage to Ernest Bishop in 1972. Emily moved out in January 2016 to visit her nephew Spider in Peru.

5 Coronation Street is the next house along and has been lived in by the Langtons, the Tilsleys and the Battersbys. When Mike Baldwin bought the house in 1976, he had the wall between the front parlour and the living room knocked away, giving No.5 the first open plan living room in the Street. Chesney Brown, Sinead Tinker, Kirk and Beth Sutherland, and Craig Tinker are the current residents.

7 Coronation Street in its current form was built by Len Fairclough in 1982. The original No.7 was demolished in 1965 after a faulty beam caused the front of the house to collapse and the original landlord, Edward Wormold, deemed it too costly to repair. The space was occupied by a bench for most of the intervening years. As a result, the brickwork of the house is newer than its neighbours, though the basic layout of the house is similar. Dev Alahan currently owns the house. Widower Dev and his children Aadi and Asha, as well as Dev's new partner Erica Holroyd, are the current occupants. Previous residents have included Rita Fairclough, Curly Watts, Danny, Frankie, Jamie and Warren Baldwin, and Maria Connor. The downstairs of No.7 was also made open plan at some point in the 2000s.

9 Coronation Street is the home of Tyrone Dobbs, who bought the house from Jack Duckworth in 2008, his daughter Ruby, his partner Fiz, and her daughter Hope. Aside from a brief spell at the Rovers, Jack lived there with his wife Vera from 1983 until Vera's death in 2008. In an effort to make the house look better than its neighbours and increase its value, Vera had the front stone-clad in 1989 and renamed it "The Old Rectory" in 2002, although her efforts actually had the opposite effect. Previous occupants include Ken, Valerie, Susan and Peter Barlow, Jerry Booth, Len and Rita Fairclough, and Gary and Judy Mallett.

11 Coronation Street was the longstanding home of the Tanner family and later Alf and Audrey Roberts, and the Webster and McDonald families. Currently, the house is the home of Eileen and Patrick Phelan, as well as Eileen's son Todd Grimshaw, Todd's partner Billy Mayhew, and lodger Shona Ramsey. Previously, longtime residents had included Eileen's elder son Jason until he moved to Thailand in 2016, and lodger Sean Tully also until 2016 when he broke up with Billy, and chose to move out when it transpired that Billy and Todd were seeing each other.

13 Coronation Street is the rightmost house of the terrace and is owned by Kevin Webster after purchasing the property from Steve McDonald. The Ogdens lived there from 1964 to 1987, and the Websters from 1986 to 2008. The Ogdens left their mark on the house with a home-made serving hatch from the dining room to the front room, and a mural covering an entire wall in the back room (since painted over). The house was damaged in a fire in the December 2010 tram crash and lay empty after then-owners the Peacocks moved out. Sophie Webster also lives there.

The Corner Shop at No.15 borders Viaduct Street, and owned by Dev Alahan and the shop banner reads "D&S Alahan" (as in Dev and Sunita). The shop has been refurbished several times, most notably in 1985 when owner Alf Roberts converted it into a self-service mini-mart, converting much of the space taken up by the shop accommodation to extend the shop space. Prior to 1985, the Shop's owners generally lived in the ground floor accommodation. The shop was also refurbished in 2004 after a major fire caused by Maya Sharma. On 6th December 2010, the shop was reduced to rubble after being struck by a derailed tram. Molly Dobbs died in the wreckage. The shop was rebuilt and is now open for business again.

15a Coronation Street is the flat above the Corner Shop. Although most shop owners have rented it out, some have chosen to use it for storage or live there themselves. The entrance to the flat is in Viaduct Street although its address is Coronation Street. It was damaged after the 2010 tram crash but was rebuilt and it is currently owned by Dev Alahan. Previous occupants include Bet Lynch, Ken Barlow and Tim Metcalfe. Currently, the flat is occupied by Adam Barlow and Daniel Osbourne, and they rent the flat out from Dev.

South side
2 Coronation Street is a business unit, built as part of the Street redevelopment in 1989. The premises was first used as a charity shop run by Emily Bishop but in 1992 Denise Osbourne opened a salon there. The business was taken over by Fiona Middleton in 1996 and the current salon, Audrey's, is owned and managed by Audrey Roberts. Maria Connor and David Platt are employed at the salon. Previous employees include Kylie Platt, David's wife, who worked as a nail technician at the salon until she was murdered in 2016.

2a Coronation Street is an upper-level flat situated above the salon. Maria Connor and her son Liam are the flat's occupants.

4 Coronation Street is the rightmost house on the south side of the Street, built in 1989, and home of the Websters since 2008. Sally Webster currently lives there with her partner Tim Metcalfe. Past residents include Mavis and Derek Wilton and the Peacocks. The house was gutted by a fire in 2007 and extensively refurbished afterwards. The house is also notorious for being the scene of Richard Hillman's 2003 attack which left Maxine Peacock dead and Emily Bishop seriously wounded.

6 Coronation Street is the middle house on the Street's south side. Its first residents were Des and Steph Barnes, and over the years it has also been home to the Harrises and the Mortons. In 2007, Tracy Barlow killed boyfriend Charlie Stubbs in the house. Anna Windass, her boyfriend Owen Armstrong and Anna's adopted daughter Faye lived here from 2008 to 2014. It is now home to Yasmeen Nazir, her grandchildren Alya and Zeedan, and Yasmeen's friend and lodger Cathy Matthews.

8 Coronation Street is the leftmost house in the south side of Coronation Street. It was originally bought by Martin and Gail Platt to start their family with their newborn son, as well as Gail's two children from a previous marriage. Ever since, Gail has been a constant resident of the house. David and his wife Kylie bought the house from Gail in 2013. Currently, Gail lives at No. 8 along with David, as well as David and Kylie's daughter Lily, and Kylie's son Max. Sarah also lives at No.8 along with her daughter Bethany and son Harry. Previous occupants include Kylie, who lived at the house until she was stabbed to death by a thug in 2016. Unlucky-in-love Gail also had three more husbands after she and Martin divorced. All three lived at No. 8, and all three died, leaving Gail widowed thrice over. She had previously been widower to Nick and Sarah's father Brian.

The Kabin at 10 Coronation Street is a newsagent owned and managed by Norris Cole. The Kabin was opened in Coronation Street in 1990 by Rita Fairclough, who relocated the business from its Rosamund Street premises and managed it until her retirement in 2009, although it was briefly owned by Sharon Gaskell in 1999. In 2000, Rita opened a post office in the shop, although it has since been closed. The Kabin also underwent major rebuilding work following the tram crash in 2010.

10a Coronation Street is the flat above The Kabin. Rita Tanner has lived there, with a few breaks, since opening the shop in 1990. Currently, Rita lives at the flat along with her lodger Gemma Winter.

12 Coronation Street is a second-level flat adjacent to 10a, which is currently vacant. When Alec Gilroy lived there in 1998, he built a door between the two flats which was removed at some point after he moved out. Previous residents have included Ken Barlow, Reg and Maureen Holdsworth, Steve and Karen McDonald, Chris Gray, Jason Grimshaw, Tina McIntyre, Tommy Duckworth, Brian Packham and Julie Carp.

16 Coronation Street is a business unit, originally used as the premises for MVB Motors. Kevin Webster owns and manages Websters' Auto Centre, with Tyrone Dobbs as partner and Luke Britton as a mechanic.

Underworld is a lingerie-making business, occupying the largest building in Coronation Street, 14 Coronation Street. Phil Jennings was the first to use the unit, as a headquarters for PJ Promotions. Mike Baldwin bought it to house print shop MVB Print, which later became Dun 2 A T, operated by Steve McDonald. In 1997, Mike launched Underworld on the site in partnership with Angie Freeman. Underworld stayed in the Baldwin family until Mike's sons Danny Baldwin and Adam Barlow sold their shares to Liam and Paul Connor in 2006. In 2010, following an explosion inside the factory caused by Tony Gordon, much of the infrastructure was rebuilt. Currently, the factory is part-owned by Liam and Paul's distant relatives, Johnny and Aidan Connor. It was previously owned for a long time by Paul's widow, Carla.

Demolished buildings
Elliston's Raincoat Factory was originally Hardcastle's Mill, which was opened in 1882 (before the rest of the Street was built) by Charles Hardcastle. The business survived until 1931, by which time there was much less demand for cotton wear. The mill was one of the many businesses in the country to close in the early years of the Depression. The following year, the four-storey unit was bought by Jack Elliston, who completely refurbished and modernised the interior and re-opened it as a maker of raincoats. The factory's output was changed to PVC hats and coats in 1966, but poor management resulted in Jocky Elliston deciding to close it for good in 1967. The unit was sold to the council, which at the time was seeking to redevelop the area.

The Glad Tidings Mission Hall was a community hall used by a Christian evangelical movement. It was an important part of the lives of the Street residents early in the Street's history, but congregations thinned in number in later years and in 1965 it faced closure until it was merged with the Bold Street Mission. Ena Sharples was the Mission's caretaker from 1937 and lived in the Vestry, although she resigned when the Mission was used as a Community Centre in 1966, only returning when the Centre closed. The Mission was closed for good in 1968 when it was purchased by the council, which pulled it down shortly thereafter.

The Maisonettes were a block of two-storey apartments that were built by the council in 1968. Their architecture was in keeping with the brutalist style that was fashionable at the time. Home to Ena Sharples, Ken and Val Barlow and Effie Spicer, the flats were demolished when an electrical fault in the wiring resulted in the death of Valerie Barlow, and the council deemed them unsafe.

The Community Centre was owned by the council and was built in 1971. For much of that time, Ken Barlow served as Community Development Officer. The Centre was used for a variety of functions including wedding receptions, clubs, discos, parties, and meetings, the last such building providing such facilities to exist in Coronation Street (other than the Rovers). Ena Sharples worked as caretaker for the centre and lived in an adjacent flat, which had its own entrance onto Coronation Street. The flat was later lived in by Percy Sugden. Property developer Maurice Jones purchased the Centre from the council in 1989, and demolished it in readiness for his Street redevelopment.

The Mark Brittain Warehouse was operated by a mail-order firm owned by Sir Julius Berlin, and built after the maisonettes were torn down in 1971. Ken Barlow also worked there as staff supervisor, and Gail Potter, Tricia Hopkins, Ivy Tilsley and Edna Gee were employed there. When a fire gutted the warehouse in 1975, the business folded. The following year, it was renovated and became Baldwin's Casuals, owned by Mike Baldwin. The denim-making business ran until 1989 when Mike sold it, at a high price, to Maurice Jones. Machinists included Ivy Tilsley, Vera Duckworth and Ida Clough.

Community
As a Street with many places for the residents to meet and gossip, Coronation Street is a close-knit community, with most residents on friendly terms with their neighbours. This was especially true in the 1960s, when there were fewer houses and many of the residents had lived in their homes for many years - Albert Tatlock, Ena Sharples, Elsie Tanner and the Walkers all had roots in the Street dating back to the 1930s, and they were cornerstones of the community, although for different reasons: the Walkers were respected due to their lengthy service in the Rovers, Albert was the Street's oldest and longest standing resident, Ena was Mission caretaker and primary gossip of the Street, and divorcee and single mother Elsie was the usual subject of the gossip due to her tendency to get involved with married men.

Although they did not always get along, the Street residents all knew each other very well and it was not an uncommon occurrence for them to walk into each other's houses without knocking. Coach trips took place every so often in the 1960s, with most Street residents going along to places including Blackpool on two occasions in 1961, the Blue John Mines in 1965 and the Lake District in 1969. They also acted together in plays or pantomimes performed in the Glad Tidings Hall or the Community Centre.

By the 1960s, however, things were already starting to change. Kenneth Barlow, a student at Manchester University, was a young radical who had been brought up at No.3 but had grown dissatisfied with the working class way of life, considering his neighbours starved of culture and politically ignorant, concerned only with themselves and their immediate surroundings. In 1962, he wrote and article which was published in Survival magazine criticising the working class, and his neighbours took it as a personal attack against them and their way of life. Ironically, despite his intentions to break away from his roots, Ken has now lived in Coronation Street even longer than Albert did.

In the 1970s and 1980s, familiar faces gradually left the Street and new families moved in. A notable event which put Coronation Street on the map occurred in 1973 when Councillor Alf Roberts was chosen as the new Mayor of Weatherfield. His opponent, Len Fairclough, lived in the Street, and Alf also had strong connections to the Street through his work at the Community Centre, and his Mayoress was Rovers landlady Annie Walker. Alf was elected Mayor again in 1994 and the following year was awarded the OBE. At one stage, Coronation Street's name was to be changed to Alfred Roberts Place in honour of Alf.

Coronation Street also narrowly avoided a name change in 1962 when the council decided to rename all but one of the Coronation Streets in the area, and this Coronation Street was to be given the name Florida Street. Ena Sharples wrote to Prince Philip to enlist his help, and he ensured the Street kept its name.

Organised excursions and plays fell by the wayside in the late 1970s. Although the Community Centre was a focal point of the community, the community it serviced enveloped much more than Coronation Street, and as a result events were better attended than any such events held at the Mission had been. Since 1989, the Street has not had a Community Centre although the abundance of meeting points, workplaces and long-standing residents has meant families of the Street still interact with each other frequently, usually helping each other in times of distress or lending a sympathetic ear when required.

Significant incidents
On 1st February 1961, the residents were evacuated to the Mission when a gas main exploded behind Coronation Street. They were evacuated again on 9th September 1964, this time to the Mission's cellar, when an unexploded bomb was found in No.1's yard, and most recently on 26th February 2007 when a bomb was found in No.4's garden.

On 10th May 1967, a train crashed through the viaduct onto Coronation Street, resulting in a frantic rescue operation for anyone trapped under the rubble. Len Fairclough, Jerry Booth and David Barlow searched through the rubble for survivors. The search turned up Sonia Peters, who was already dead, and Ena Sharples, who was found just in time to be saved.

On 7th March 1979, a timber lorry lost control while driving through Rosamund Street and crashed into the Rovers, injuring Alf Roberts, Len Fairclough, Mike Baldwin and Betty Turpin and killing the driver. Concern was raised for Tracy Langton, who had been left in her pram outside the Rovers while her mum Deirdre went inside for a minute to speak to Annie. Deirdre was convinced Tracy was dead but Tracy had actually been taken away by Sally Norton before the lorry hit.

On 8th February 1993, Lisa Duckworth was hit by a car in the Street and later died in hospital. Since the council had imposed a one-way traffic system in the Oakhill district of Weatherfield, many road users had been using Coronation Street as a shortcut and traffic in the Street had increased 500%.

In 2004, Maya Sharma tried to kill Dev and Sunita Alahan as revenge for Dev dumping her for Sunita. She tied them up in the Corner Shop flat and set fire to it, and waiting in her car across the Street to watch. Fortunately, the neighbours noticed the smoke coming from the shop and they were rescued by Charlie Stubbs and Ciaran McCarthy. Furious, Maya accelerated and tried to knock them over with her car but crashed into the viaduct.

On 12th January 2007, Tracy Barlow murdered Charlie Stubbs in No.6, as revenge for his affair with Maria Sutherland. Other murders in the Street include Des Barnes, who was beaten up by drug dealers in the same house in 1998, Ernie Bishop, wages clerk at Baldwin's Casuals who was shot during a robbery in January 1978, Tommy Harris, who was killed by his daughter Katy in a moment of rage in 2005. On 8th October 1997, Don Brennan died when he drove his car into the viaduct. From 2001-03, financial adviser Richard Hillman lived in the Street at No. 8, and resorted to desperate measures to gain control of the assets of several residents whilst being married to an oblivious Gail Platt. One of his actions included the murder of Maxine Peacock at No. 4, although his crimes were discovered by Gail shortly afterwards. In March 2012, Frank Foster was murdered by his mother Anne during an argument over his rape of Carla Connor.

Many other deaths, from natural causes, illness or suicide, have also taken place in Coronation Street.

Background information

 * The architecture of Coronation Street was based on Archie Street in Salford, although Archie Street differed slightly from its fictional counterpart. See that article for more information.
 * Five sets have represented Coronation Street since the programme's 1960 debut. The first set was erected within the studio at Granada and was used until 1968. The Grape Street set, the original outdoor set, was situated on the Granada backlot and was used from 1968 to 1982. At Grape Street, the wooden studio frontage was used initially but the street was re-built in brick in 1969 in readiness for colour television. The purpose-built outdoor set at Granada Studios, constructed in 1982, was eventually extended to include parts of Rosamund Street, Victoria Street and a small part of Viaduct Street. Filming transferred to the current set at MediaCity studios on 9th January 2014.